Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Birthright Citizenship, Injunctions, and the 14th Amendment

Birthright citizenship arguments usually get framed as a single dramatic question: Can a president end it with a pen? But the more revealing question is procedural, not poetic: What can a federal judge actually do while the fight plays out? That is why Friday’s development matters. U.S. District...

The 26th Amendment, Mail-In Voting, and Age Limits

You can read the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in under ten seconds. Understanding it, especially in the mail-in voting fights that keep surfacing in state legislatures, takes longer. That is because the amendment does two things at once. It prohibits the United States and the states from denying or...

Can a President Rename a Lake?

You can rename a lake in a speech in about five seconds. You can even instruct executive-branch agencies to start using the new name in their press releases and talking points. But you cannot rename geography the way you rename a post office, because geographic names live in shared systems that...

What the Supreme Court’s Alexander Ruling Changes in Redistricting Lawsuits

Redistricting lawsuits always sound like geometry fights dressed up as politics. But the Constitution treats them as something more basic: a question about how a state may use race, and when federal courts should step in to stop it. That is why the Supreme Court’s Alexander v. South Carolina State...

Can Noncitizens Vote? What the Constitution Says About Voter Rolls and Citizenship

The fight over noncitizens on voter rolls often sounds like a single yes or no question: can noncitizens vote? For federal elections , the legal answer is straightforward: noncitizens cannot vote . The Constitution leaves most election administration to the states, but Congress has layered federal...

Can the FCC Punish the Media? First Amendment Limits on Broadcast Regulation

When a public figure says a network host should be “reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment” over allegedly inaccurate commentary, it taps into a persistent American misunderstanding: that because broadcasters use “public airwaves,” the government can police their news judgments. The...

AI-Generated CSAM and the First Amendment: Why Courts Say Their Hands Are Tied

The headline is unsettling for a reason: Supreme Court precedent often constrains how far lawmakers can go in criminalizing at least some computer-generated or AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) , especially where the government cannot prove a real child was involved. That is not...

Why Vandalizing the WWII Memorial Can Be a Federal Crime

You can stand on a street corner in America and say a lot. You can march, chant, carry a sign, and make your point loudly. But those rights are not unlimited. Noise rules, permit requirements for certain events, and laws against true threats, harassment, or incitement can still apply. And if you...

Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment

Birthright citizenship feels like one of those constitutional “obvious truths.” If you are born here, you are American. End of story. Except the rule is not written as a bumper sticker. It is written as one sentence in the Fourteenth Amendment , plus more than 150 years of debate and litigation...

Can a President Rename Lake Ontario?

You can rename almost anything in Washington by simply deciding to call it something else. The harder question is whether anyone else is required to play along. That is the real constitutional story behind a recurring kind of controversy: reports that a president might try to rebrand a major...

Birth Tourism and the 14th Amendment: How Birthright Citizenship Works

You can feel the constitutional question hiding inside the headline: if someone flies to the United States late in pregnancy, gives birth, and leaves, did they just “exploit” a loophole or did they use a rule the Constitution itself writes in ink? That question is getting fresh attention after the...

Can Noncitizens Be on Voter Rolls?

Every election cycle seems to rediscover the same unsettling sentence: noncitizens on the voter rolls . Recently, the Republican National Committee said it warned New Jersey election officials that it may sue over records it claims show noncitizens on registration lists, with a compliance deadline...

Can Congress Subpoena Sanctuary City Prosecutors?

When members of Congress threaten subpoenas, it can sound like a simple question of muscle: Can Washington summon anyone, anywhere, and demand answers? The Constitution’s real answer is both more powerful and more limited. Congress has broad investigative authority as an implied incident of Article...

Can the President Restrict Mail-In Voting?

Mail-in voting can feel like a single national system because the envelopes look familiar and the Postal Service is federal. But constitutionally, elections are mostly not federal programs. They are state-run events with a federal overlay. That is why executive orders aimed at mail ballots often...

Can Trump Rename Lake Ontario With an Executive Order?

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 27, 2026 directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” and he framed it as taking effect “effective immediately.” The backlash was immediate too, including Canadian diplomatic pushback and a wave of corrections...

Florida Blocks TANF Cash on EBT for Tattoos, Theme Parks, Vapes, and More

Florida just drew a much brighter line around a familiar question: When the government gives cash assistance, does it get to decide what “counts” as an acceptable purchase? The state has updated the rules for its Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) program to block recipients from using cash benefits...

Appeals court rejects McIver’s immunity bid in ICE case

Members of Congress get real constitutional armor when they legislate. They do not get a free pass to do anything, anywhere, so long as they describe it as “oversight.” That is the basic premise behind a new federal appeals court decision declining to toss most of the criminal case against Rep....

Can States Ban Welfare Cash for Tattoos, Vapes, and Video Games?

You can feel the instinct behind policies like this: if public dollars are meant to keep families afloat, the state should be able to say they cannot be used for tattoos, vapes, theme park tickets, or a new game console. But here is the necessary clarification up front: despite a lot of...

What Power Does a State Attorney General Have Over Sheriff ICE Operations?

When immigration enforcement shows up on a county road, it can look simple: a deputy pulls a driver over, checks identity, calls ICE, and someone winds up in federal custody. But constitutionally, that one traffic stop can involve at least three governments at once: a local sheriff’s office, a...

Can a Member of Congress Be Prosecuted? Legislative Immunity Explained

Members of Congress write laws. They investigate. They hold hearings that can damage reputations. They give speeches that ignite national arguments. So it is natural to assume they are insulated from ordinary criminal prosecution. The Constitution does give them a kind of immunity. But it is...